Lisa Przystup’s Favorite Under-$100 Home Items
Design can be prohibitively expensive. But not far from, say, Julianne Moore’s George Nakashima coffee table, there might just be a $135 Ikea shelf. In this series, we ask designers and design-minded people for their favorite useful, utilitarian home items under $100. This week, author Lisa Przystup, whose Instagram feed is a master class in how to take pictures of your house — something she’s done beautifully in her new book, Once Around the Sun — shares her essential bar rags, red taper candles, and Shaker peg rails.
I have an embarrassing number of photos on my camera roll, mostly due to my compulsion to document anything and everything. A large number of them are of our home, which comes as no surprise, as it’s the stage that we live our lives on. These photos ended up being part of the inspiration for my second book, and while the book is first and foremost about the seasons and the way we mark and celebrate them, it’s also about home and the way we move through it, about paying attention and noticing. Part of that noticing (for me at least) was realizing just how many unassuming but wildly useful things we have around our home, all of which are a part of our daily lives and, by default, part of the story of the book. The beautiful simplicity of a paring knife, the satisfaction of making lists with a really good pencil, a spool of twine whenever you need it (which, as it turns out, is quite often). The pleasure that comes with utility. What follows is by no means an exhaustive list of these things.
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I discovered this incense last spring when I was in Tucson for an artist residency, and now I truly can’t live without it — made in Tucson by Sara Murillo, the benzoin-and-tonka scent is my favorite. The website describes it as “sweet, resinous, balsamic, warm.” I’d add grounding, centering, and nerve soothing to the mix.
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I still keep a paper planner; I find it to be almost meditative in practice, and part of that meditation is the enjoyment I get out of writing with a pencil. (Is there anything more satisfying than sharpening one?) These are my favorites — they write smoothly and sharply, plus they have the best tagline: “Half the pressure, twice the speed.”
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To say that these are workhorses would be a wild understatement. In addition to their intended use, we use them to protect our couch and bed from our dog and always travel with a couple on our cross-country drives. They make great tablecloths and are ideal for beach hangs and picnics alike.
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Makes an overflow of coats and totes almost look curated (almost).
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Taper candles are always in heavy rotation in our home — they have a way of making even pizza night feel special and inspired. Lately, I’ve really been into the drama of red tapers.
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Having bud vases on hand is a low-lift way to bring flowers in without the production or fussiness of a full-on arrangement. These line our windowsill and look just as pretty without blooms as they do with.
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Once Around the Sun is by no means a cookbook (because I am by no means a cook), but food and meals — and, by default, olive oil — play a really big role in the story of each season.
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Bought for trussing, used for everything under the sun: tying around gifts, as a makeshift hair tie, hanging herbs — you name it.
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Winter is long where I live. The first snow often happens around Halloween, and the last snow has been known to fall on/around Mother’s Day. It’s nice to have something beautiful (and utilitarian!) to deliver bad news.
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Kate, the second half of the husband-and-wife team who shot the book, turned me on to these garden snips: Small, efficient, and less cumbersome than regular clippers, they fit neatly into a glove compartment for roadside flowers and the like.
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I waited tables for about ten years, and during that time I developed a close working relationship with bar rags. These cotton herringbone ones are my favorite — I use them for drying dishes and cleaning up messes and as napkins too.
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When we first moved into our house, the previous owner left this red-handle paring knife, and it turned into one of our most used kitchen tools. The pop of color makes it easy to find in the jumble of the silverware drawer and will turn a lemon into wedges in the blink of an eye.
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I don’t know what took me so long to finally discover trugs, but I’m happy I did. They’re excellent for schlepping garden cuttings down to the compost and hauling soil. I like keeping a couple out to drop random clippings and yard waste into.
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More Under-$100 Homewares We Love
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The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
